The invention relates to a bearing support, in particular for a laser resonator, with at least two support sections and an articulated joint provided between sections, and a corresponding bearing support assembly with such bearing supports.
To allow the horizontal shifts of a laser resonator—occurring, e.g., due to temperature changes or accelerations—in all directions, in a known bearing assembly the laser resonator is connected with a base plate by three bearing supports, namely by a four-way bearing support, a three-way bearing support and a two-way bearing support. The four-way bearing support is designated as a fixed bearing support and has two rotational degrees of freedom and no translational degree of freedom. The three-way bearing support with two rotational and one translational degrees of freedom is designated as a one-dimensional movable bearing support, and the two-way bearing support with two rotational and two translational degree of freedom is designated as a two-dimensional movable bearing support.
The fixed bearing support of the known bearing support assembly is formed by a cone provided on the resonator frame that is open downwardly and in which a ball bearing is mounted so that it may tilt but it is not able to slide in the plane of the bearing. The one-dimensional movable bearing support is formed by a V-bolt provided on the resonator frame that is open downwardly and in which a ball bearing is mounted able to tilt and able to slide linearly. The two-dimensional movable bearing support is formed by a flat bearing surface on the resonator frame, on which a ball bearing sits and is able to slide freely. In all three bearing supports, the bearing balls are able to tilt all around due to their spherical surfaces.
On each of its three bearing supports, the known bearing assembly additionally has a vertical safety to prevent the laser resonator from lifting off and springing out during transport. The vertical safety consists of a screw connection designed between the ball bearing and the bearing surface. The laser resonator is not to be operated with the transport safety detached, but it is sometimes forgotten to detach the vertical safety again after transport, thus leading to errors.
It is an object of the present invention is to improve a novel bearing support for lasers and the like in which the bearing supports are vertically secured as simply and easily as possible.
Another object is to provide a support assembly using said bearing supports to provide a corresponding bearing assembly.